The children of Mrs. Richards were in no sense inferior to the descendants of the other families.  She lived to see her work bear fruit in the distinguished services they rendered and the desirable connections which they made after the Civil War.  Her daughter Julia married Thomas F. Carey who, after conducting a business for some years in New York, moved to Toronto, where he died.  From this union came the wife of D. Augustus Straker.  Her daughter Evalina married Dr. Joseph Ferguson who, prior to 1861, lived in Richmond, Virginia, uniting the three occupations of leecher, cupper and barber.  This led to his coming to Detroit to study medicine.  He was graduated there and practiced for many years in that city.  Before the Civil War her son John D. Richards was sent to Richmond to learn a trade.  There he met and became the lifelong friend of Judge George L. Ruffin, who was then living in that city.[10]

The most prominent and the most useful person to emerge from this group of pioneering Negroes was her daughter Fannie M. Richards.  She was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, October 1, 1841.  As her people left that State when she was quite young she did not see so much of the intolerable conditions as did the older members of the family.  Miss Richards was successful in getting an early start in education.  Desiring to have better training than what was then given to persons of color in Detroit, she went to Toronto.  There she studied English, history, drawing and needlework.  In later years she attended the Teachers Training School in Detroit.  Her first thought was to take up teaching that she might do something to elevate her people.  She, therefore, opened a private school in 1863, doing a higher grade of work than that then undertaken in the public schools.  About 1862, however, a colored public school had been opened by a white man named Whitbeck.  Miss Richards began to think that she should have such a school herself.

Her story as to how she realized her ambition is very interesting.  Going to her private school one morning, she saw a carpenter repairing a building.  Upon inquiry she learned that it was to be opened as Colored School Number 2.  She went immediately to William D. Wilkins, a member of the board of education, who, impressed with the personality of the young woman, escorted her to the office of superintendent of schools, Duane Dotty.  After some discussion of the matter Miss Richards filed an application, assured that she would be notified to take the next examination.  At the appointed time she presented herself along with several other applicants who hoped to obtain the position.  Miss Richards ranked highest and was notified to report for duty the following September.  Early one morning she proceeded to her private school in time to inform her forty pupils of the desirable change and conducted them in a body to their new home.

Miss Richards taught in this building until 1871, when by a liberal interpretation of the courts, the schools were mixed by ignoring race distinction wherever it occurred in the school laws of Michigan.  She was then transferred to the Everett School where she remained until last June when she was retired on a pension after having served that system half a century.  Although she taught very few colored children she said to a reporter several years ago: